Parker was the owner and leading research scientist, and was responsible for organizing things, but it was their find and the Exploration Association’s expedition.
Many scientists of Exploration Association had joined the trip and first exploration of the new latitude search, and they sat around excitedly discussing it, and occasionally talking with Parker about things, and sending out messages back to the other scientists that had not come along. There had not been enough room for more, especially with all the equipment that the scientists had brought with them, and he counted at least twenty of them.
Bryson believed that they now knew things, which they had not said, which he, Merton, Mortimer may not know, and he got the impression that they thought that it was located somewhere beneath the sea. Where else could it be?
Yet he wondered if even it could survive below the sea without attaining damage over such a length of time, which it would have had to have been there for, and wondered how they would get it?
All the flight might lead to could be its possible detection? They would need to find a way of getting whatever it was up from the immense depths of water. What if it were the size of a ship?
The crew and members of Parker’s team notably still considered the Antarctic as a potential location for their original work, where the ice in regions had been proven to have been on the land there for millions of years. Where amphibious or other prehistoric animals, which had been there, could be buried there? Extinct species, and even some remaining dinosaurs, might have been roaming there and could have been killed in avalanches or snowstorms and frozen there.
When something did occur with the equipment, the reactions they gave were unbelievable, even when they knew something was there already, as with the artifact in the field! The equipment had started showing strange reactions and nobody had comprehended anything at first, as it had been too vague, and minute reactions, which could have been anything being detected, and some nearby site creating a disturbance or being detected for something.
The problem was they had not fully checked its reactions to everything, even though it had been tested out for years, and they were sure that other things like the artifact could create some reactions. The equipment was more sensitive at detection than ever before, and had even been modified before the trip, for detection at distances that they had not worked at, which Parker was more interested in, to speed up his other future searches.
All Parker’s scientists went around a scientist, where reactions were being detected, and they all started discussing what they thought of it, and what could cause the disturbance, and Bryson saw that some were disappointed, and thought that if it were the same as the artifact that it was far weaker and less advanced, and they started to believe the find would be a disappointment!
Yet what they never realized and soon started to was that it was weaker because it was far further away, and that the other artifact, Pacific island discovery, and Cornwall discovery would not even have been detected at that distance and that the new advances in the equipment to work at a that distance had confused their computers and technology, and had shown them that it could be something else.
They thought by the reactions that it would be nothing, and that they would discover something that it had detected wrongly, but as the plane rushed forward across the immense sea they started getting increased strange reactions and accounts, and they checked for equipment problems, and they only gradually perceived that there was something ahead that had similarities to the artifact, but with immense proportions!
Chapter 14
The First Attack
The two paranormal scientists and other scientists were more baffled than Bryson had accepted they could be!
It surely had been the occurrence emergence that had done it and had them and the other scientists unraveling what had been wrong with the equipment, with them gradually realizing that something else had been emerging, with them studying the slightest reactions created, while still trying to prove what had been wrong had been the alterations introduced to the equipment.
Though it could have been the combination of it and the appearance of an island in the distance, where all the disturbances had been found to be generated, where there had not been an island earlier!
Where had the island emerged from? Was it a coincidence that the equipment had malfunctioned at the same point?
He knew they would hide any flaws in the technology! It was valuable and might still need advanced further, in its new state!
Mortimer checked his map with Merton and they found nothing, and investigations proved that the island never existed!
Nobody accepted the equipment had made an entire thirty-mile circular island appear out of nowhere, and nobody had the slightest response to give on an explanation to the phenomenon!
Any answers to that would be incomprehensible and crazy, and would surely be recorded at such a discovery!
Bryson realized that he could name the island and be remembered by it, and realized what the outcome of it could really be! Nobody had a clue what to think! What was it? They now were now not in control of their own fate!
All the communications from and to the outside world had gone and the pilots reported it to them, expecting them to offer them help or at the least their scientific theories, but nobody could help and they left the professional pilots on their own to handle all the problems themselves! They were better without them being there, and knew more about what to do.
Would they even survive to see what was there? The equipment and plane had increasing signs of being in danger at an alarming rate, as they advanced forwards.
Shudders and fluctuations ripped through the plane as unknown energy surges swept through the region, threatening to rip it to shreds and scatter it across the sea, and Bryson imagined the remains being recovered days later floating over the sea and being fitted together later to try to explain what had occurred.
He was sure something was starting to become more powerful with its defenses, and could be weaker at the incredible distance away they were from it.
The other scientists also started to realize it and that they might not even see what the island was, but Parker and his scientists insisted in ignoring it and going there until the plane was in real danger! Yet he was sure that they might not be able to change their course! Whatever it was could have control of the plane, and if they did come down that they were best doing it near the island, especially as it would be a great deal of time before anyone turned up looking for them there.
He decided to ignore the great danger that they were in and to examine everything that was occurring to try to explain things, and fit things together and get a proper picture of what might happen and if they could do anything. In the past they had pulled themselves out of many dangerous and tricky situations, and he thought that they could do it again.
He examined the strange alterations, with erratic characterizations, in the equipment, and wondered how it was now affecting the plane and the pilots and wondered if he could help there, and at least know what would occur to it.
The island appeared at a window and he joined some scientists there examining it in detail. It was incredible and he had seen nothing like it! At a distance it had seemed normal, but now it was so unusual it left them confused! The scientists about him started taking photographs, and close ups, at different regions of it, and he saw they had also decided to ignore the dangers there.
The island was clearly not marked on any map, and uncharted, and he wondered where the hell it had come from! It looked volcanic, but it was definitely old and could not have just formed out of some immense volcanic eruption.
Two of the scientists discussed it loudly and gave evidence of such occurrences as immense structures forming from volcanic disturbances, and he thought of legendry islands of the Pacific.
“We should have someone contact the mapping companies responsible!” Merton joked. “When we get back!”
Parker nodded firmly i
n agreement, and they returned to where they were working in another compartment.
“This island is clearly new!” Mortimer continued. “Look at the way all of the surrounding water has been churned up, and is full of muck from the seabed!”
All the scientists stared at it and started to confirm that it was true more and more, and point out other disturbances that identified it as being true and that something had occurred there recently, and Bryson saw vast amounts of seaweed that had been forced up and into large lines around its circular shore.
One of the scientists pointed over at a large tidal wave shifting out away in the distance from it, where all the water was rushing away from it, and he considered if they should try and report it, as it could do damage, but they knew that they could not make any messages from the plane. Even their pocket phones had stopped working, and they could do little other than monitor the situation and look for answers to solve the problems.
“That island looks prehistoric?” a young scientist announced, looking out the window with binoculars.
One of the other older scientists beside him took the binoculars off him and searched where he was looking, and at an area inland, and replied, “Not only that it’s a tropical island too!”
“How the hell could a tropical island get there?” the younger scientist replied.
“It could be there from the early planet when this region was warm!” another scientist replied. “When dinosaurs once roamed the continents ...”
“There are palm trees still growing there though!” the scientist looking through the binoculars moaned.
Chapter 15
The Crash
Once the plane started reacting crazily and started descending Bryson realized like most of the crew that the worst outcome could become real, and he saw them reacting to their worst fears all around him and he realized that they could do little.
He copied the ones that positioned themselves into seats and prepared for what was ahead, covering themselves with objects such as pillows to cushion violent impacts, to avoid being badly injured or killed.
The plane hurtled down towards the island, in the bright sunshine, reflecting over the sea, and some scientists expeditiously rushed to positions, recalling emergency procedures, and others swiftly deactivated their equipment, to avoid damage.
Bryson went beside Merton and Mortimer, in their original seats, and made sure that he had a good view from the window of what happened outside. He was sure that the plane should have more doors to escape out of in such conditions. He imagined it going below the waves and them drowning while trying to get to the door. And he wondered if extra emergency doors would weaken the plane or made it harder and more expensive to build.
The shades of sunlight pulsated, in various motions, across his front, as he considered what would happen now! Had it ruined the trip? If it crashed and crashed badly! Yet they had found the island and what they were looking for! If they survived to see what was there! All they could do was wait for the outcome, and try to stay alive doing it.
He started realizing how professionally skilled and proficient the flight crew actually was, and that Parker had gone out of his way to choose them, realizing the dangers that could appear. He recalled hearing of him having a crash at the Pacific island discovery, and he knew that they had experience.
Everything on the plane appeared in order, and it was only being influenced by something clearly on the island. He was sure it was forcing them to land and was now avoiding destroying the plane, and it occasionally gave shudders through the plane, shaking everything about, and scientists tried to carry out tasks while it made them fall over and drop things.
“I don’t believe this!” he heard the captain moan loudly, through the cockpit door, clearly letting them hear. “Tell me if our speed increases any further!”
Bryson was surprised that they could not fully control the speed of the plane, and he tried to give a logical explanation for it if there was not anything affecting the plane. How could anything take control of a whole plane and at such a distance? What form of technology was behind it? Could it be used to kill? Was it a form of military technology? And could they have figured out a way to compensate and stop it? Surely there had to be a way to obstruct or weaken it?
“It’s uniform!” one of the crew called out. “It’s not increasing any faster!”
The pilots tested and did what they could perceive, and Bryson realized that they could be in for a more interesting trip than he imagined! Though there seemed to be going to be some deaths! And he considered what they were up against this time, but nothing anywhere indicated enough to put anything together!
There had to be something irregular and visible somewhere, and he was sure that he could find it if he had long enough and the right means!
“We’ve still lost all contact with the outside world,” Merton confirmed again, as he examined his phone.
“Remarkable!”
Many of the scientists started avoiding looking at each other, with occasional horrified glares, as they saw that they were going to land soon. They were no longer in control of their fate!
“We’ve a regular speed and look like we’ll descend correctly,” Merton resumed. “But where can they land this thing, without destroying it and us?”
“I don’t get this!” one of the scientists uttered, as he entered there from the cockpit. “It were as though the plane had a computer that kicked in and started landing it for them, and they cannot discover why it is taking us down and to a different destination than we were set to land!”
“Has this plane got something to land it then?” Merton asked curiously.
“It does not! And it seems to be carrying out some form of alternative plan – to land us!”
Faint lights illuminated everything from nearby as if some supernatural disorder burst into its confines!
The plane flew in low, at a regulated pace, almost as though it were being overwhelmed by something. The scientists started monitoring what was happening about them as it happened, and Bryson realized that they liked to handle things rather than to ignore them, and for some reason they were more confident of surviving! He did not wish the flight crew had too much comfort and hoped they just got control of the plane and could avoid an uncomfortable situation.
“We have gear to survive in the sea?” Merton announced, arriving back at his seat, after checking what was happening. “There are some inflatable life rafts!”
Bryson gasped, and realized that there could be a problem there now, but he recalled that it was going to a destination on land!
He did not know what to want! How could the plane land without the pilots, with whatever landing it, and land on a proper landing site. Even the professional pilots aboard would have had a hard time finding a landing site there, and he was sure that there was not anything even there that was properly safe.
The shudders from turbulent energy surges from something made them jerk forwards and backwards, making them all go silent, and stop conversations.
At times he was sure that something was playing with them or checking them out in the only way that it could!
For a moment Bryson gasped, while recalling seeing the plane wings and how thin they were, and realized why crashes were so dangerous and leaved such destruction.
“It seems to be taking us somewhere!” Merton finally whispered jokingly, and trying see what he would say.
He nodded sharply, and copied the others by glaring blankly out of the windows, and replied, “We could survive in the sea!”
It was greatly overestimated! If they did survive in the rafts in the waves below he was sure that they might not even make it ashore. The shore of the island was strange and rugged and had very large waves lashing about.
From the window, he saw the expanse of lashing waves shifting around with tremendous velocity and energy at one region for no apparent reason.
He expected to see some form of landmark there and maybe even a distant fishing
boat. Yet they were too far from anywhere and beyond civilization!
At times he felt as if he were drifting down to a hideous death!
His eyes glared as he barely believed the destructive forces lashing out at the plane as it started to reach the island, and he realized that they had avoided going into sea. Something sounded and felt like it were trying to grasp the plane and take a more powerful control of it. It was hard to grasp how the tremendous forces could be generated!
It descended rapidly, and a roar from the sea vanished in the distance, while strange sounds emerged below, and mystifying winds went around the plane, which were nowhere else.
Just as he caught sight of something in the obscurity in the distance, where there was a haze, he heard one of the wings lash across the top of a tree, and something was thrown up against one of the windows behind him.
He considered getting up, and out of his seat, to take a look further down, but he remained in his seat with his seatbelt fixed tightly around him.
It plummeted, administrating a perfect landing, sweeping across the ground, without damaging the plane, in a manner that would have been incredible for even the best pilots to carry out, and an eerie silence emerged from outside.
He could only wonder why it had landed with such precision, and he was amazed that some of the scientists started clapping their hands and congratulated the pilots, and he and the others just joined in and laughed over it. At the cockpit he heard the pilots ignoring it and discussing the landing and that it would be impossible to take off again, and that the plane must have somehow acquired structural damage as all the fuel was leaking out of the plane everywhere.
Chapter 16
The Lost Island
When Parker stepped onto the island for the first time he had a strange sensation and thought that he was stepping out onto something far more than an uncharted desolate island! It was as though they were stepping onto Mars or something, and making the first step for mankind onto another world!
The Alien Artifact 5 2014 (Novelette) Page 5
